Should You Be Stockpiling Ammo, Yes or No?

Shiner, Texas –-(Ammoland.com)- How much ammunition can one man use: Probably not too much of it.

Well, it will all depend on a lot of factors and whether or not a substantial amount of luck exists.

Nonetheless, I’ve seen firsthand certain individuals stockpiling thousands of rounds of ammunition and dozens of firearms for their own use.

The stated reason for it varies. Now is there truth to the “you can never have enough” motto that everyone uses when wiping out the local Walmart’s ammo supply?

Of course there is: oftentimes there just isn’t enough ammo to go around. Does it mean you should do it?

As a fellow shooter I’m begging you not to. Buy a few boxes and then come back and buy a few more. Try not to hoard all of the ammo from the sporting goods department. Everyone needs at least some ammo. Your taking it all is just needlessly greedy. We are talking about preparation, not plundering. If you really need cases of ammo, buy it on the Web and have it delivered. It’s what Web vendors do and you’re likely to save a little money that way anyway. Buying up practice ammo is fine.

When it comes to tactical/defensive/hunting ammo: please save some for others.

As for why stockpiling may not be as practical: if you have to leave [bug out] and possibly do so on foot, how much can you possibly carry? As a matter of perspective, even a 7 magazine loadout of 5.56mm NATO has some good heft to it. Combined with a full hydration pack and a “tac’d out” rifle, one quickly remembers those famous words, “Ounces equal pounds, pounds equal pain.” Again, some of us have training and can bear that kind of load for considerable time and distance. Not all of us. Know your limitations.

If you get into a firefight and you’re lucky enough to have 10,000 rounds of ammunition stockpiled, are they all loaded into your 358 magazines? Wait, you don’t have 358 thirty round magazines? Me neither. Nor do I want to be loading magazines in the middle of a firefight. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have the ammo. I’m saying you need to be cognizant of the limitations you may face. Your ammo will be useful for collecting food and providing security, but it takes up both room and increases weight. You will have to make compromises to accommodate the other basics of survival and how you prioritize those basics is up to you.

After evaluating those needs you may find the cost of all that extra ammo might be better used to pay for other items.

Read More Survival & Prepping strategies on our blog “Saved Rounds” : Zombies, the Prepper and the End of the World

About Shield Tactical; Shield Tactical is a family business. Though we are not all related by blood, the bond of 2nd ammendment supporters is just as strong. My name is John W. Harrington and I am the president and founder of Shield Tactical. I have been involved in student based firearm instruction for over ten years. Over that period of time, my philosophy has been simple – make it about the shooter. Every member of our team has heard me say (more than they care to count) “People don’t come to us to hear about how great we are or what we have done, they come to us for what we can do for them”. Visit: www.shieldtactical.com

35 thoughts on “Should You Be Stockpiling Ammo, Yes or No?”

I kinda agree and disagree at the same time about this. I want as much ammo as I can afford to buy. I have several different caliber weapons and if we have to bug out, odds are I’m taking my truck. I have no problems putting all my ammo in it. If it comes down to beating feet on foot, We’ll take all that we can based on what we can carry and not because that’s all I have. Plus there will be ammo there when I can return. If I can’t return, good luck to the other people in trying to find where it is.

Stock piling ammo isn’t necessary, unless you live in a state like NY. Every day that passes we come closer to the countdown of unfair and punishing laws in regards to ammo purchases. I need a lot of ammo and I need it now. I’m not planning for a apocalypse, I just want to shoot paper for a reasonable price. In a few months this will not be easy to do, unless preparation is made. It’s just to bad that there is a ammo shortage as this goes on.

I bought 420 rounds of 556 at wal mart in the last week. 3 20 rd boxes at a time. Also, one of our local ranch stores has 1000 rd boxes in, no limit. I would also check out http://www.ammoseek.com, some decent deals there.

Damn….I don’t read the author of this piece whining about how much money a person needs. He doesn’t seem to care about how many flights soetoro-obama takes in Air Force One for his dog, his spouse and her friends. I notice the author doesn’t snivel about the cost of Internet/cable connections (100% increase in two years) while the CEO gets paid $20 million plus. How much money does one man need to hoard ?

I’ve stored the ammo I could afford for many reasons. It’s no different than the fuel I’ve put in storage or the freeze-dried food. Personally, I could give a damn about “leaving some for others” as those are the same people who screw others on a daily basis.

Wake up Revell and get out of your touchy-feeling world of holding hands and singing Kumbaya. This weekend you should consider attending the church of your choice and putting more of the money in the collection basket. You know the money you saved by not buying ammo so others could have some.

What do you consider to be practice ammo versus tactical/defensive/hunting ammo? Are you talking about .22 vs .223 and beyond? Or are you talking about brands? Reloads vs new? I submit that ammo is ammo and any of it will serve any of the roles you suggest. The classifications you use are senseless in the current shortage. The fact that you believe there is a distinction between “practice” ammo versus other types in this moment in history is telling.

It’s well and good to have a discussion about this, but let’s get down to which side of the fence you’re on. Do you currently have at least 250 rounds for each gun you have?

Wiping out shelves at Walmart? No individuals are doing this. There’s a 3 box limit per customer. Are you so well stockpiled yourself that you are oblivious to the issue?

You believe 10,000 rounds of ammo is a burden on space? The VAST majority who want ammo would be overjoyed to have this “problem”.

You suggest only people who want to buy in bulk to search online. Did you take a moment to think maybe everyone should do the same regardless of the size of their own inventory? What’s the difference. If you were going to take it that far, why not suggest specific sites or trackers to help out everybody? Helping everybody was your main concern wasn’t it? Put your money where your mouth is and sell at cost what will not fit in your magazines.

Hey Ammoland, this is a hack job. This article doesn’t help a single person concerning ammo. I didn’t realize you were pressed to merely fill space. Next time just fill the space with random words or letters. This article is utterly worthless.

I didn’t realize how many gun owners are freekin crazy until this ammo shortage, which was self induced occurred.Most of us use guns for recreation,like target shooting or hunting, the wack jobs that think they are going to single handed fight the U.S. government will be so dead so fast they won’t know what hit them. Get a reality check, who are you going to war with, maybe space aliens.

I have 1000 or so rounds of 223, gives me 4-500 to hit the range with & 5-600 for defense, seems sensible, Few Hundred rounds for each pistol, & 50-100 rounds for my hunting rifle a .243 Win. Not being crazy here. BTW I bought all my ammo before the shortage, Wont buy a $1.00+ round, unless its for my 458 SOCOM. Been kind of a bitch not going to the range because of the shortages, but I sat on all my ammo as I knew it would blow over, I see ammo & LOTS of it here in AZ now…

Get ammo while you can because when you need ammo it won’t be available. I’m always confused by the “Bug-Out” mentality. I live in WV west of DC. Don’t plan on coming out here because if you are unknown to us chances are we are going to be sending you on your way in an unfriendly manner.

I buy ammo when it is available and priced as it was before all the weird stuff. I go to the range from time to time and kill paper until I am out of ammo. I maintain 100 rounds for each gun at the house. When I get down to that 100 round mark, I go online and order more.

When I served in Viet Nam in 68 we were authorized 7 magazines of 18.I never thought that was enough.You could go through that pretty quickly,if the situation presents itself.I can always get food but not always ammo.

The past few years have all of us looking differantly at the amount of ammo to have on hand. The big factors are what do you have currently, what can you find, and how much is in you checking account. I now see the need more of a stock pile in the past. I would also add that you don’t want to store it all in the same place. At current prices you can quickly pay for a supressor and you can still find those. That may be even more usefull than trying to hump extra ammo. YMMV

A couple of points: 1) it would be foolish to have all of one’s ammo stockpiled in one location, 2) there may come a time in the near future when ammo will no longer be available or so taxed and regulated that it will be difficult to get, and 3) if, in fact, some dire event occurs, especially one that makes currency devalued or worthless, ammo will be like bars of gold in terms of barter power.

I don’t think the author is being unreasonable. I think he’s talking more about not panicking and buying up anything and everything. I’ve got thousands of rounds in several calibers but I accumulated that over several years. What I won’t do though is run to the local sporting goods store at the last minute and buy up all the 9mm or 22lr or 5.56. He does say “Buy a few boxes and then come back and buy a few more.” Plus, I know I can do little more than a full loadout without overloading myself if I have to hump my survival kit on foot.

Considering the rest of the article (on the original blog about the zombies) is about preparation. Seems to me, having a good stock of ammo already accumulated is better preparation than rushing to the store to get whatever is left. Water would be the same right?

“Leave some for others” is one of those liberal bleeding-heart admonitions designed to make me feel guilty or selfish so I won’t exercise my freedoms. No thanks. It’s nobody’s business how much of anything I buy. We now live in a “survival of the fittest” world so I will buy as much ammo as I can, or anything else that I deem necessary for survival.

In 2012 Virginians bought over 490,000 guns if each were to buy 250 rounds for the new gun that would total 122.5 million rounds of ammo. There are states that buy more some less but if the was the ave. for the country that is Six Billion plus rounds. How many people shoot fifty rounds in a months practice? That would leave them with less than six months ammo, meaning buying more at what ever store had a supply doubling the need for ammo per yr. to 12 Billion rounds. This is just for the new guns being bought by a lot of first time gun owners. It is the increase in volume of sales v manufacturing capacity that may not have gone up in the past three decades that drives the shortage as much as hoarding.

Mike: A) there is a bit of a shortage, though it has relented quite a bit. B) People aren’t all hoarding to resell, a lot are ‘stockpiling’ as they think gun control is coming and won’t be able to get it in the future. This isn’t entirely paranoia either if you watch/read much news. And most of them/us/me have no intention of ever selling the ammo we have bought. Even if no gun control/SHTF problems arise, just means I’ll have plenty of hunting/plinking ammo for years to come.

I’ve never bought ANY firearms related products from Ball-mart, and i never will. I keep a decent storage of ammo because i flat out do NOT trust our current government. In a defense scenario, particularly a post-SHTF scenario where police are not available, you’d be surprised how much ammo you could potentially go through. Just ask any soldier of any branch that has seen combat. 1000 rounds SOUNDS like a lot, but it really isn’t, especially if the government freezes all ammo sales to the public in some kind of martial law scenario or whatever, and roving douchebags are prevalent. I would rather have a 10 year’s supply of ammo, and KNOW I HAVE IT ON HAND, then leave it to chance. It’s about prioritizing money to the task of accumulation. That way whatever happens, your ammo stock will not be weighing on your mind when your head is occupied with a thousand other details of keeping your family safe, fed and dry. And who SAYS you have to lug everything you own? Has this fellow ever heard of Caches? You can easily break up your holdings into smaller increments and strategic stockpiles, and revisit locations as you need replentishment. It AIN’T rocket surgery……. My advice? In this current climate, Narrow down to as FEW calibers of firearms as possible. Trying to stockpile ammo for 30 different calibers for a DEFENSE scenario will misdirect valuable resources, time and storage space. Unless you want to be a post-SHTF ammo dealer, than disregard. But for family and community defense, I would narrow ALL battle rifles down to one caliber, all sniper/hunting rifles down to one caliber, and all handguns down to one caliber, and buy a respectable amount of ammo for each. 3 calibers total. Makes inventory a snap. Stockpile for those with a worst case scenario in mind. My humble musings…….

While I agree if you have ammo not to clean out stores as they replenish,many do buy a lot of foreign ammo for practice/just having some fun target shooting at a more reasonable price.I believe the next step in firearm control by govt. may be outlawing foreign ammo sales,plenty out there at moment and will always keep a good supply

Allow me to apologize… this is just a snippet of a much longer article that was written about the zombie apocalypse. I heard all of your concerns. It is not my intention to prevent anyone from buying tons of ammo. I have tons of ammo myself and like I wrote, there just isn’t enough. The article is simply about being practical. All too often I hear from customers who ‘prep’ who do little more than prepare their weapons and ammo, but do very little to prepare for other aspects of survival, like food and water. With limited resources its important to prioritize one vs all others. That said, what I implore everyone to do is rather than clearing out the shelves of your needed calibers at one time, is accumulate those rounds and always have a good stock of them fresh and ready. After all, those of us who have accumulated our stores over a period of time are, prepared. Those who rush to the store to buy what they can at the last second are, unprepared. Either way, none of the article is meant to say having loads of ammo is unwise. Quite to the contrary. It just means to say, when the ‘S’ hits that fan, you’re not the only one who needs ammo, hopefully you’ll already have yours stored.

So many people have panicked over this ammo shortage that it IS creating a self-fulfilling prophecy shortage. It’s so bad, that IMO we’re going to have an “ammo crash” sometime in the next few years. People have SO much ammo on hand they will eventually monetize some of it, creating increased supply – that and the fact that ammo manufacturers have increased capacity now to meet the shortage. Economics 101; it’s a recipe for falling ammo prices.

i agree with the writing to be prepared in every area of your life, not just ammo. for instance, i haven’t heard many preppers say how they’ll handle the mental stress and strain of a “bug out” situation or the toll it will take on their family’s mental state (especially young children) if or when they are cut of from the world for an extensive period of time. 100,000 rounds of ammo won’t do much to ward off a nervous breakdown nor will it help your kid when he doesn’t understand why he can’t go outside to play with Timmy. think about it. prepping is not just about ammo or food. you would be well served to consider your spiritual and mental health as well.

Yes stock pile ammo in every caliber you own. You don’t have to buy cases at a time, you can buy a few boxes every payday. Before you know it, you’ll have 10 or 20 thousand rounds stored back. The way this current administration is working, you might not be able to get ammo tomorrow. So buy it when you can.

If you have 5000 rounds…(just throwing out a number)…if YOU have to exchange 5000 rounds with the ENEMY….YOU are most likely to die…if you survive…your enemy is either blind or you are the luckiest S.O.B. on the planet….in a fire fight if you go through 4-5 magazines….1 or 2 of your team is usually hit or killed….think about that…..besides carry 1000 rounds in a rucksak….and run aroud the block….then think about 4× that weight…